Tokyo - Brewdog's Bottled Samurai

Tweedy Messes with One of the Big Boys of Beer

Mrs T's been trying her hand at the arty photo again (above). We're reviewing Brewdog's Tokyo beer here, so I said go out and capture in a photograph what the city of Tokyo says to you. Hard to achieve in the West Country of England, I'll grant her that. I don't think she quite fulfilled the brief. Either that or what the city of Tokyo conjures up in her mind differs greatly from what it conjures in yours or mine. Marks for trying Mrs T.

About Brewdog

Brewdog is a Scottish craft beer brewer, based in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, that was established in 2006 by James Watt and Martin Dickie. The brewer is notorious for the strength of some of its beers, The End of History being an eye-popping 55% ABV produced in a very limited run. That's a tad strong for old Tweedy, but Tokyo, the first of the infamous strong ones, weighs in at a hefty 18% ABV.

As James says, "Our mission when we set up BrewDog was to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are. And that is still our biggest mission today."

Brewdog's Tokyo Beer

Tokyo is a stout made with a combination of malts, jasmine and cranberries, which is then "dry-hopped" after fermentation and aged on oak chips.

Pitch black in the glass, with a nice beige head, there's caramel, raisins and sherry in the aroma. The taste has the initial roasted malt of a stout, then warmth and sweet fruits follow. My tasting scribble mentions vanilla, berries and liquorice. Smoother and sweeter than you might expect considering the strength. Delicious. The beer boffins say it would make a good beer to enjoy with sweet things.

Very drinkable, despite the alcohol content. So much so I polished off the bottle myself.

I'd like to say that by the end of the bottle the colours of the walls at Tweed Towers started to rotate into a phantasmagorical kaleidoscope and the ends of my Church's slippers stretched out in front of me and shook each other's hands.

The reality is that it served as a precursor to sleepily nebulous thoughts about Tokyo and the last thing I bought that was made in Japan. I'll tell you...